Executive Director, Center for Election Confidence
Lisa L. Dixon serves as the Executive Director of the Center for Election Confidence (formerly known as Lawyers Democracy Fund). Lisa is also a consultant for the Republican National Lawyers Association, serving as their Legal Counsel. Previously, Lisa practiced at Holtzman Vogel, where she specialized in tax-exempt organizations, campaign finance and election law, and lobbying compliance.
During law school, she interned for the Office of Chief Counsel, Procedure and Administration, at the Internal Revenue Service and at the Center for Law and Religious Freedom. Before law school, she served as the Assistant Student Division Director at The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies and interned at The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Legal and Judicial Studies.
Lisa earned a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, an M.A. in History from the University of Virginia, and a B.A. in History from Hillsdale College. After 18 years on the East Coast, mostly in northern Virginia, she recently returned to her native Michigan, where she lives with her husband and three sons.
Professor, Political Science and Public Administration, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Dr. Martha Kropf is Professor of Political Science & Public Administration at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her Ph.D. is from American University in Washington, DC in Political Science (fields: American Politics, Public Policy and Public Economics). She worked two years at the University of Maryland Survey Research Center (Project Coordinator) and taught at the University of Missouri-Kansas City before coming to UNC Charlotte. Her areas of research include the study of elections and election reform, voting and political mobilization. She has published in the Journal of Politics, Political Research Quarterly and Public Opinion Quarterly. Her work has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the Aspen Institute.
Attorney
Maya M. Noronha is a civil rights attorney.
As special counsel for external affairs at First Liberty Institute, Maya worked for the largest legal organization in the United States dedicated exclusively to defending religious liberty for all Americans.
Previously, Maya worked at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as acting chief of staff of the Administration for Children and Families; principal advisor to the Commissioner of the Administration on Children, Youth, and Families; and senior advisor to the Director of the Office for Civil Rights and regulatory reform officer. She provided advice on federal civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of conscience, religion, race, color, national origin, limited English proficiency, sex, disability, age, and health information in both health care and human services.
In the area of election law, Maya has advised officials elected to or candidates for President, U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, Governor, state legislature, city council, and magisterial district judge. She practiced law at Baker Hostetler LLP, where she was on the Political Law and Federal Advocacy Teams, advising clients on voting rights, redistricting, election integrity, campaign finance, financial reporting, ethics compliance, as well as conducting trial and appellate litigation. She also has delivered legislative testimony, planned continuing legal education conferences on election law, and published about voting rights and election administration.
In addition to addressing the Federalist Society, she has delivered remarks to the White House Initiative on Asian American Pacific Islanders, United States Senate, Women in Government Relations, Georgetown University, George Mason University School of Law, the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America, and Arizona State University Cronkite School of Journalism.
Maya is in Phi Beta Kappa, a member of the Alpha Sigma Nu Jesuit Honor Society, and a John Carroll Scholar. Forbes Magazine recognized Maya as one of its 30 under 30 in Law and Public Policy.
She serves concurrently on the Federalist Society’s Free Speech & Election Law Executive Committee and the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Election Law.
Education
· J.D., Georgetown University Law Center, 2011
· A.B., Georgetown University, 2005
Senior Fellow, Cato Institute
Walter Olson is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies and is known for his writing on the American legal system. His books include The Rule of Lawyers, on mass litigation, The Excuse Factory, on lawsuits in the workplace, and most recently Schools for Misrule, on the state of the law schools. His first book, The Litigation Explosion, was one of the most widely discussed general-audience books on law of its time. It led the Washington Post to dub him “intellectual guru of tort reform.” Active on social media, he is known as the founder and principal writer of what is generally considered the oldest blog on law as well as one of the most popular, Overlawyered.com. He has advised many public officials from the White House to town councils and in 2015 was named by Gov. Larry Hogan to be co-chair of the Maryland Redistricting Reform Commission, which issued its report recommendations later that year to acclaim across the state.
Before joining Cato, Olson was a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and an editor at the magazine Regulation, then edited by future Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Olson’s more than 400 broadcast appearances include all the major networks, NPR, the BBC, The Diane Rehm Show, and Oprah.
Legal Fellow, Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, The Heritage Foundation
Jack Fitzhenry is a Legal Fellow in the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies.
He previously served as a law clerk for the Hon. Madeline H. Haikala on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama and for the Hon. Patrick E. Higginbotham on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Between clerkships, he litigated a variety of commercial disputes as an associate with Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP.
Fitzhenry received his law degree from the University of Michigan Law School and his bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Williams College.
Does Ranked Choice Voting Help or Hurt?
Lisa L. Dixon, Martha Kropf, Maya Noronha, Walter K. Olson
Ranked choice voting, also known as instant runoff voting, is a voting method where voters...
Georgia Supreme Court Carves Its Own Path on Due Process to Strike Down Occupational Licensing Law
Jack Fitzhenry
A unanimous Georgia Supreme Court held in Raffensperger v. Jackson that an occupational licensing law...
Topics
State Supreme Courts Protect Economic Liberty
This has been a big week for fans of state constitutional law. Georgia and Pennsylvania...